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Replace dynamic loading of always-present Win10 APIs with static linking

Historical reference only: stale-v0.72a-experimental-clean and analysis\stale-v0.72a-experimental-clean are retired reference sources, not active branch targets or current baselines. Use them only as provenance or idea-extraction sources; landed status is determined against main. See Historical References.

Summary

Several Win10-always-present APIs are loaded dynamically via GetProcAddress as a relic of Win9x/XP compatibility. Since the project targets Win10+ only, these can be called directly via their normal headers and import libraries, removing the boilerplate LoadLibrary/GetProcAddress/FreeLibrary chains.

Landed — 2026-04-19

Landed on main in commit 6ae47ec (REF-020: remove dead Win10 compatibility paths).

The final scope was slightly broader than the original wrapper-only draft:

  • removed the dead DEP runtime setup entirely on the Win10+ baseline
  • replaced the heap, DWM, known-folder, message-filter, and crash-dump dynamic probes with direct Win10-era behavior
  • simplified DetectWinVersion() to return the supported Win10 baseline instead of probing RtlGetVersion
  • removed obsolete Win10-always-present DelayLoadDLLs entries and the related stale GDI+ linker comments

Revalidation — 2026-04-13

Current main still has 10 LoadLibrary sites and 21 GetProcAddress sites in srchybrid, but only a subset are compatibility debt. Dynamic loads for optional modules such as MediaInfo, UnRAR, and language DLLs are still legitimate.

The Win10-always-present cleanup subset still live in current main is:

  • Emule.cpp:181-182 — GetProcessDEPPolicy / SetProcessDEPPolicy
  • Emule.cpp:269 — HeapSetInformation
  • EmuleDlg.cpp:382 — ChangeWindowMessageFilter
  • EmuleDlg.cpp:3907-3914 — DwmGetColorizationColor
  • Preferences.cpp:2976 — SHGetKnownFolderPath
  • Preferences.cpp:3181-3186 — DwmIsCompositionEnabled
  • Mdump.cpp:65-71 — MiniDumpWriteDump

Items

DWM functions (EmuleDlg.cpp, Preferences.cpp)

// EmuleDlg.cpp:334 / Preferences.cpp:2818 — pattern:
HMODULE hDwmApi = LoadLibrary(_T("dwmapi.dll"));
if (hDwmApi) {
    typedef HRESULT (WINAPI *PFN_DwmIsCompositionEnabled)(BOOL*);
    auto pfn = (PFN_DwmIsCompositionEnabled)GetProcAddress(hDwmApi, "DwmIsCompositionEnabled");
    if (pfn) pfn(&bEnabled);
    FreeLibrary(hDwmApi);
}

On Win10, DwmIsCompositionEnabled always returns TRUE and DwmGetColorizationColor is always available. Replace with:

#include <dwmapi.h>
// link: dwmapi.lib
BOOL bEnabled = TRUE;  // always true on Win10; or call directly:
DwmIsCompositionEnabled(&bEnabled);

Add dwmapi.lib to the linker inputs if not already present.

SHGetKnownFolderPath (Preferences.cpp)

// Dynamic load pattern for SHGetKnownFolderPath
HMODULE hShell32 = LoadLibrary(_T("shell32.dll"));
// ... GetProcAddress("SHGetKnownFolderPath") ...

SHGetKnownFolderPath is in shell32.dll which is always loaded on Win10. Replace with direct call:

#include <shlobj.h>
// link: shell32.lib (already linked)
PWSTR pszPath = nullptr;
SHGetKnownFolderPath(FOLDERID_..., 0, nullptr, &pszPath);

MiniDumpWriteDump (Mdump.cpp:65-71)

// Mdump.cpp:66-72 — loads dbghelp.dll dynamically:
HMODULE hDbgHelp = LoadLibrary(_T("dbghelp.dll"));
typedef BOOL (WINAPI *MiniDumpWriteDumpFn)(...);
auto pfn = (MiniDumpWriteDumpFn)GetProcAddress(hDbgHelp, "MiniDumpWriteDump");

dbghelp.dll ships with Windows and is always available on Win10+. For crash dump generation it is acceptable to link statically:

#include <dbghelp.h>
#pragma comment(lib, "dbghelp.lib")
MiniDumpWriteDump(hProcess, processId, hFile, type, pExceptionParam, nullptr, nullptr);

Note: if side-by-side dbghelp.dll (from Debugging Tools) is desired, keep the dynamic load but simplify the null-check logic.

Files to Modify

File Change
srchybrid/Emule.cpp Replace DEP / heap hardening GetProcAddress wrappers
srchybrid/EmuleDlg.cpp Replace ChangeWindowMessageFilter and DWM dynamic loads
srchybrid/Preferences.cpp Replace DWM dynamic load and SHGetKnownFolderPath wrapper
srchybrid/Mdump.cpp Replace MiniDumpWriteDump dynamic load
Project linker settings (.vcxproj or CMakeLists) Add dwmapi.lib, dbghelp.lib if missing

Acceptance Criteria

  • [x] No LoadLibrary(_T("dwmapi.dll")) in the codebase
  • [x] No GetProcAddress wrappers for HeapSetInformation, ChangeWindowMessageFilter, SHGetKnownFolderPath, or MiniDumpWriteDump
  • [x] Dead DEP runtime setup removed instead of preserved as a direct-call path
  • [x] Mdump.cpp links dbghelp.lib statically
  • [x] dwmapi.lib and dbghelp.lib are linked directly
  • [x] Win10-always-present DelayLoadDLLs entries were removed from the app project

Experimental Reference Implementation

Status in stale-v0.72a-experimental-clean: Done in commit b9f4cfa (REFAC: statically link always-present Win10 APIs). Key changes: - Emule.cpp: GetProcessDEPPolicy / SetProcessDEPPolicy — function pointers and GetProcAddress chains removed; SetProcessDEPPolicy(PROCESS_DEP_ENABLE) called directly (it is a Win7+ API, always present on Win10) - Emule.cpp: HeapSetInformation — GetProcAddress removed; ::HeapSetInformation(NULL, HeapEnableTerminationOnCorruption, NULL, 0) called directly - EmuleDlg.cpp: ChangeWindowMessageFilter — GetProcAddress boilerplate replaced with direct call; LoadLibrary("dwmapi.dll") + DwmGetColorizationColor dynamic load replaced with direct include + static link - Mdump.cpp: MiniDumpWriteDump already static-linked in experimental - MediaInfo_DLL.cpp: MediaInfo DLL loading moved to a dedicated loader class (MediaInfo_DLL.cpp) with cleaner probe-and-validate logic

Porting note: The Emule.cpp changes are ~20-line reductions of boilerplate. EmuleDlg.cpp DWM change adds #include <dwmapi.h> and removes LoadLibrary; verify dwmapi.lib is in linker inputs (it is in the current .vcxproj via project defaults).